Elder Vanderlinden - Uruguay Montevideo Mission

Our Zone with my new Mission President and his family. See if you can find me.
I am in a grey suit!

Teaching about Baptism!

Adelante si tiene guantes!

Another week down in Uruguay. This week my companion and I worked really hard to find more people to teach and to help our investigators progress. It payed off! We were able to re-fill our teaching pool and we had 6 investigators at church yesterday.

On Saturday night, we organized a huge event in the church called an “Open Church.” We opened up all the doors and set up presentations in each room of what goes on inside the church, and a brief summary about what we believe. My companion and I had the amazing opportunity to teach about the importance of Baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was incredible, because with group after group, we were able to share our testimonies and to teach about the blessings these important steps can bring. I felt completely calm and comfortable and to my surprise, I was able to confidently answer every question that was asked of me. Over the space of 3 hours, I was able to share my testimony to small groups of 2-5 people. Overall, we taught 54 people who aren`t members of the church. One of our investigators entered the room, and said she was startled, because she said she thought we were angels when she came in. Haha. I guess it payed off to wear our white baptismal clothes.

A funny experience this week, is that we are helping a really old couple get married. The boyfriend`s name is Enrique, and his girlfriend`s name is Ester. We went to the Town Hall and took out a paper for his deceased wife. We went to tell him the good news. He asked to see the paper, but we only had the receipt, because we were keeping the document safe in our house. He looked at the receipt for a few minutes in silence and then yelled, “This doesn`t even have her name on it!!!” We explained to him again that it was just a receipt, and that we had the document in our house. Contentedly, he went back to looking at the receipt...Then after another minute of silence he yelled “This doesn`t even have her name on it!”…We giggled a little thinking that he was joking repeating the same thing, but he wasn`t...We explained it was just a receipt again, and then he went back to staring at it ....and he did the same thing a minute later! My companion and I busted out laughing....and he just kept staring at it....and every minute, he would realize that it didn`t have her name on it, and get all frustrated...My companion and I died laughing! I don`t know if we should marry someone who forgets after 1 minute.....Haha. Hopefully he will remember he is married for more than one minute.

What a solid week!

-Elder Vanderlinden

Quote of the week: “Life must be understood backward but...it must be lived forward.” -Soren Kierkegaard